The current trend in radio design is toward product miniaturization. For a radio to be small, it should ideally be made up of small parts or modules. One such module may be a filter, which typically contains microelectronic capacitors and inductors. Another module may be a balanced mixer, which includes capacitors and coupled inductors.
Construction of conventional microelectronic inductors is known. To provide more inductance per surface area, known inductors utilize a spiral pattern on at least one side of a substrate. To create coupling loops by this method, layers containing additional spiral patterns are added on top of the first layer, thereby increasing the height of the component.
Another known technique for creating microelectronic circuits, such as hybrid filters, requires air wound coils to be soldered on top of a substrate along with capacitors. However, since the windings of the coil are free standing, the inductance values can vary, reducing the coil's reliability. In addition, the self-resonance of the filter may subsequently change due to the variance in inductance. At high frequencies, the windings may also produce undesirable microphonics.
Therefore, a need exists to provide reliably improved performance in microelectronic components such as inductors, coupled inductors, and filters.